


nothing a holiday can't handle

by tranquilatlast



Category: Deltarune (Video Game)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Crushes, Developing Friendships, F/F, Noelle-Centric, Pining, Useless Lesbians, will add tags as story continues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 08:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16930239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tranquilatlast/pseuds/tranquilatlast
Summary: According to Kris, Susie was a nice person. Noelle really wanted to believe that, if only for the sake of knowing her crush wasn't a big bully. It gets a bit easier to believe every day.[requests are OPEN]





	nothing a holiday can't handle

**Author's Note:**

> listen i made this ao3 account for the sole purpose of writing undertale and that was when i was in middle school. EVERYONE is weird in middle school and i was the worst so i didn't think i'd be writing undertale again and i still don't but this is the next best thing and i'm stoked!! this first chapter is a bit slow-paced but i wanted a good setup for any requests that might come in
> 
> enjoy the first chapter and whatever else is updated at this time as the story continues!!

Noelle was going to talk to Susie today. She’d practiced in front of her mirror the whole night before, making sure she was thoroughly prepared. Of course, she had to make sure she went to bed early for a good night’s rest, which took a lot of self-control. It also took a lot out of her to actually get to sleep, what with all the butterflies in her tummy. Still, she woke up rejuvenated and refreshed and ready ready ready to go!

When Kris had come up to her yesterday, she was surprised by how social they were being. That surprise had quickly made way for awe when they’d told her that Susie was nice! They hadn’t been fibbing, either, though Noelle really wasn’t sure how she’d be able to tell if they were. She figured they’d have absolutely no reason to, considering how long the pair had been playing hooky together. They’d even given her an appropriate nod in response to her deliberating whether to talk to Susie, which was probably equal to enthusiastic encouragement from them. Thus, her preparation had commenced.

Now, she was standing before the classroom door, looking straight through the warped glass at the movement of green and purple figures already inside. It was a surprise that they’d shown up early, even earlier than her, but Noelle was pleased. Maybe she’d get to talk to them alone! Before that, though, she had to steel herself before entering the battlefield. No, “battlefield” was too violent. The… the ruins, maybe. The remnants of wariness and sad curiosity, crumbled away into the firm belief that Susie was a nice monster who wouldn’t roll her eyes at attempts of friendly conversation, nor dismiss Noelle’s feats of friendship, or anything more.

But, uh, friendship first. That was the first hurdle in a slow-paced raced of getting to know this really, really attractive monster girl and putting all those nasty rumors about her to rest. Maybe Susie would even appreciate the gestures Noelle wanted to make! A girl can dream, and dream she did.

Okay, Noelle, she thought. You got this. You got this. Nothing a Holiday can’t handle, right?

She placed a steady hand on the knob of the door, rolled her shoulders in anticipation, and twisted her hand to push it open. Before, she could, however, the door swung open for her. She squeaked as she was pulled forward slightly before having the sense to let go of the knob and right herself.

Noelle came face-to-face with Kris, who was looking at her with a very vague look of amusement. She looked above their head to a towering Susie, standing behind them and peering down at her through dark bangs. Probably. Noelle couldn’t really see her eyes. No one spoke for a solid moment until Noelle decided to initiate conversation.

“Oh! Good morning, Kris! Good morning, Susie!” she greeted cheerily, feeling her cheeks flush as her voice raised just a tiny bit higher in pitch at addressing the former. Kris’ sense of amusement grew, and she was embarrassed to know they definitely noticed even though their bangs covered their eyes as well. They gave a short good morning in response, but offered no other words. “You’re both here early, huh?”

Kris turned to look up at Susie, their hand still on the door. The monster met their gaze somehow, and Noelle felt like she was intruding on a silent conversation taking place via staring. She shifted her weight awkwardly. After another tragically long moment of silence, Susie looked at her again, shoving her claws into the pockets of her jacket.

“Not really. We were just about to leave,” she replied. Noelle was struck with how much she’d actually spoken. What was that, like, ten words? Her awe-filled expression seemed to make Susie look away, rubbing the back of her neck through thick, brown hair. “Uh, see ya.”

They didn’t move just yet, and Kris stared at Noelle without actually staring. She started suddenly, and hastily sidestepped to make way for them. Kris waved as they passed, Susie on their heels. Noelle watched them stride all the way down the short hallway until they took a left at the main corridor, disappearing from sight without turning to look at her again.

“See you… later, I guess,” she said to no one, shoulders falling a bit at the pair’s footsteps fell quiet with distance. As delighted as she was to have any sort of encounter with Susie at all that day, there wasn’t much of a conversation there.

But still! Bright side! Susie hadn’t ignored her or anything worse than that, which already went against everyone saying she was a ruthless meanie. Their exchange had been short, but already looked to be leaning towards Kris’ claim. Looks like she could spend another day refining her mirror talk.

The next day, she was sitting at her desk in class with her hands folded on her desk and her head slightly turned to the side to gauge the classroom door for the two students’ arrivals. She wasn’t even sure whether they’d show up today, since they’d only appeared to come early the previous morning in order to meet up and skedaddle off somewhere else right away.

But the main thing was, Susie was nice. She was nice. Kris was nice, too, albeit very aloof. That was something the pair had in common, she supposed, even with yesterday’s interaction. She’d given it some thought that afternoon, and if Susie really was aggressive and mean, she’d have just pushed Noelle out of the way, right? But she didn’t! She had even replied with a good morning right back before leaving. Noelle just knew Susie wasn’t a bully, and hopefully her befriending her could stop the others from thinking so.

The rumors were most likely based on her overall appearance and distant nature, and Noelle felt guilty of believing in such mean words about a nice person. A nice person. What a refreshing thought! The previous morning had thrown her off, sure, but that didn’t matter now. It had just been proof that Susie could be friendly. Polite, at least. Noelle found herself smiling a little at the words breezing through her mind, and she was extra friendly as she greeted Ms. Alphys by that title, then greeted the other students that came trickling in. They seemed pleased by her attitude, but it wasn’t surprising for anyone. She always meant to be naturally kind in hopes of being a friend to all, and it usually got the job done.

To her disappointment, the only people that didn’t get to hear her greeting that morning were Kris and Susie. Alphys announced that the class period would be dedicated to their group projects, which was very generous of her. Noelle vaguely recalled some sort of anime being released that afternoon and tried to ignore the way Alphys was hovering near her class computer.

The yellow monster turned to the chalkboard, which Noelle had helped clean down yesterday, and looked around for the chalk she’d had Noelle fetch from Ms. Toriel when Noelle had informed her that Susie and Kris probably wouldn’t be attending class that day. She came up empty-handed. Empty-clawed. Looks like the chalk had gone missing again.

Just then, the door was slammed open. Noelle jumped along with the rest of the class and her gaze shot to the figures in the threshold, the purple girl leading Kris this time. She had a stoic expression on her face, but Noelle could just barely see an excited buzz about Kris’ demeanor from her seat. They seemed excited, almost, for their standards. It definitely couldn’t have been from class.

“S-S-Susie! Oh, and-and Kris!” Alphys stammered out, still taken aback from the sudden noise. She wrung her hands, looking at the two students as they stood in place. “W-Would you two, um, happen to have any i-idea about where the ch-chalk, um—”

“What, lost it again?” Susie interrupted, unknowingly making Noelle’s soul skip a beat. The girl’s hand moved to the center of her chest before quickly dropping down, choosing to latch onto the sound of Susie’s gruff voice instead. “Me and Kris will go out and find some.”

For some reason, Noelle felt like Susie and Kris knew exactly where the chalk went. Ms. Alphys did not.

“O-Oh! No, that’s okay! Uh, you and-and Kris have a seat! We’re going t-to spend the period working on our g-g-group projects, eheh, so um! Sit! Yeah!” The teacher gestured to the empty desks in the classroom and the buzzing from Kris’ form seemed to dissipate. The pair had their mouths set in a solid frown, lamenting the loss of their ditching excuse, but Susie turned to look at Kris and they had a brief exchange with their covered eyes again before shuffling to their seats.

Alphys seemed surprised that they listened to her, the entire class watching the teens sit down, before the students’ attentions were drawn to her again as she announced that they could work on their projects then. A pat landed on the side of Noelle’s upper arm, but she ignored Berdly for a second. She was looking over her shoulder at Susie, who was using her foot to push one leg of Kris’ desk with an obnoxious scraping sound as they sat in their chair, only stopping once they were facing her. The two weren’t stupid, by any means, but she could tell they didn’t really know what they were doing. Maybe they didn’t even know what the project was at all.

Berdly squawked his disapproval at his partner ignoring him and Noelle was forced to turn and apologize with a bashful smile, grabbing her bookbag and opening it up to find her readied materials from the night before and quickly skimming over the margins to make sure she hadn’t doodled anything silly. She kept glancing at Kris and Susie whenever she was facing Berdly’s direction, finding herself often spacing out during his lengthy boasting over the work he’d already put into the assignment. The isolated pair was huddled close, snickering to each other as they discussed who-knows-what. Susie and Kris really weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing, but they sure made it seem like fun.

They seemed eager to leave during the class break, but Noelle managed to gather what she needed and swiftly approached them before they could even get halfway to the door. She held the folders tightly, but made sure not to crumple or tear anything as her grip became nervous. Hopefully she wouldn’t drop anything, either. If Susie saw her trip over absolutely nothing and have her papers flying everywhere like some sort of ditz, she would literally die.

“Susie! Kris! How’s the project coming along?” she asked, the rehearsed lines sliding easily from her mouth. The pair slowed down to a stop in front of her, even though she wasn’t blocking their way at all. She was besides them, actually, making sure to keep out of their path to the door. The fact that they didn’t just continue walking made her ecstatic. The pair paused and Susie glanced at Kris, as if unsure what to do. Her friend kept their obscured gaze on Noelle, the corner of their mouth twitching up slightly. When seconds ticked by and both girls realized Kris wasn’t going to say anything, Susie awkwardly filled the silence.

“Uh, fine.” The monster shoved one hand into her pocket, the other coming up to rub her neck through thick, brown hair. Noelle stood a bit taller, excited at the start of conversation. The rest of the class had trickled out by now, though a few students glancing back at them did not go unnoticed by the blonde.

“That’s good! I just wanted to ask because, well, I actually got some stuff together for Kris to help them, and I figured while I was at it, I could also make some stuff for you, Susie!” Noelle turned the folders and held them out in front of her for Susie to grab, careful not to let anything spill out the top. Susie leaned back slightly in surprise, looking at the stacked folders, then to Noelle, then to Kris. She looked at Noelle again, and the deer monster could feel heat rush to her cheeks as she kept a friendly smile on her face. “Uh, y-you don’t _have_ to accept them, of course! I just, uh, thought it couldn’t hurt to—”

“No, uh, y-yeah. No, you’re good, uh.” Noelle knew that was meant to be a placating phrase, but couldn’t help but grow to be more flustered. She had much more confidence in front of her mirror. Susie took her hand out of her pocket to grab the folders with both hands, nearly brushing over Noelle’s skin. With bated breath, she watched Susie open the folder on top, labelled with her name at the corner, and look over what she could see. Noelle had been packing up Kris’ papers once she had finished with her homework, and came up with the idea to make up another set for Susie, just to be fair. It had taken her just over an hour, but seeing Susie peek over at the other few pages of helpful project guidelines with an unfamiliar expression of curiosity and surprise was worth it.

And then Susie looked up to meet her gaze, closing the folder and holding it with one hand as the other came up to sweep her bangs to the side and _really_ met her gaze and oh god, those _eyes_. A fluttering feeling filled Noelle’s chest—no, not her chest. Her center. Her SOUL was fluttering, soaring, steady thrums filling her whole being with… whatever this feeling was. Yeah, this was worth it. Completely worth it. Astoundingly worth it.

“Thanks. That’s um, pretty cool of you,” Susie said, an almost bashful expression on her face. Her brown bangs swung down as soon as her hand lowered, defining the gesture as more of an subconscious action more than anything, but Noelle still felt like she was going to spontaneously combust. She only realized her mouth was parted a few beats later, but quickly closed it to grin instead, hoping it didn’t look strained or painful.

“Y-Y-Yeah! No problem! So, uh, I-I’ll let you guys go where you’re going. See you later!” A light little laugh left her as she folded her hands behind her back to fiddle with the hem of her sweater vest. Susie let out a small hum of acknowledgement and watched her for another short second before nodding slowly. With that, the pair disappeared, and Noelle was left alone in the classroom, her eyes staring at the door long after it had swung closed.

Slowly, her hand came up to her sternum, lightly pressing through her clothes. The thrum of her SOUL had calmed, but waves of its energy were still very much obvious and very much unfamiliar, but still incredibly welcomed. This whatever-it-was filled her with warmth and giddiness and calmness and pure joy and a longing she didn’t know how to fix.

Her nervous grin had long faded, and a soft, excited smile took its place. She’d never felt this way before and didn’t even know what it was she was feeling, but she didn’t ever want it to stop.

**Author's Note:**

> did you enjoy reading this chapter?? if so, please comment an appropriate suselle prompt you have for me to write and i'll try my best to write it out in a ~2k word chapter. all these chapters will be connected in a fun story for everyone to enjoy!!
> 
> feel free to comment your thoughts on a chapter as well. i LOVE reading comments and i love knowing people enjoy the stuff i create.
> 
> thanks so much for reading!!


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